Download Bell Pettigrew Museum of Natural History - synergy

Bell Pettigrew Museum
of Natural History
Interpretative Panels
Text: Dr Iain Matthews
Design: Steve Smart & Cavan Convery
A University of St Andrews Development Fund Project
School of Biology
http://biology.st-andrews.ac.uk
11:1 Unirama (Hexapoda)
Body Plan:
• Bilaterally symmetrical
• Triploblastic
• Haemocoelic cavity &
through-gut
• Protostome
• Segmented, with
complete, chitonous
exoskeleton
• Jointed legs on at
least some segments
Unirama
p hy l u m Hexapoda
P hy l u m
Sub
Super class
Class
Gut
Endoderm
Body Cavity
Mesoderm
Ectoderm
Exoskeleton
The hexpods are distinguished by the presence
of a trunk that is subdivided into a thorax, with
three walking legs, and an abdomen of eleven
segments without walking legs. The hexapods are
stiff-bodied, three-layered animals, with a simple
through-gut and a spacious haemocoel. They have
tracheae for gaseous exchange and Malpighian
tubules for excretion, two pairs of maxillae and
subterminal gonopores.
), plant suckers (e.g. aphids and true bugs),
flower feeders (e.g. bees, butterflies and hoverflies ), chewing predators (e.g. wasps, mantids
and dragonflies ), sucking predators (e.g. bugs,
mosquitoes and horseflies), ectoparasites (e.g. fleas
, lice and some flies), parasitoids (many flies
and ichneumon wasps), aquatic filter feeders (e.g.
black-fly larvae) and benthic scavengers (e.g. caddis
, and mayfly nymphs).
The subphylum contains 6 classes; 5 small classes
of wingless insects and a single huge class of
winged species. Relationships of the 5 primitively
wingless (apterygote) classes, each of which diverged
early in the phylum’s history, to both the
myriapods and the pterygote insects remains
uncertain. All 5 classes are small, each containing
only a single order, and the entire apterygote
group contains only 3,100 species. In contrast,
the single pterygote class contains 29 orders and
estimates suggest up to 20,000,000 species.
Classification
within
Hexapoda
The structural design of hexapods is fundamentally
rather constant, but the group displays huge
lifestyle diversity, due especially to the versatility
of the locomotory and feeding systems. Lifestyles
include litter-dwelling herbivores and carnivores
(e.g. many beetles and ants), scavengers (e.g. earwigs,
houseflies and cockroaches ), plant chewers (e.g.
locusts , fly larvae, caterpillars and termites
SuperOrder: Hemipteroidea
Order:Psocoptera (Booklice)
Order:Mallophaga
(Chewing lice)
Class: Oligoentomata
Order: Collembola (Springtails) Order:Anoplura (Sucking lice)
Order:Thysanoptera (Thrips)
Class: Myrientomata
Order:Homoptera
Order: Protura
(Aphids & leafhoppers)
Order:Heteroptera (True bugs)
Class: Zygoentomata
SuperOrder: Endopterygota
Order: Thysanura (Silverfish)
Order:Coleoptera (Beetles)
Order:Strepsiptera
Class: Archaeognathata
(Strepsipterans)
Order: Microcoryphia
Order:Hymenoptera
Class: Pterygota
(Ants, wasps and bees)
SuperOrder: Palaeoptera
Order:Raphidioida
Order:Ephemeroptera (Mayflies) Order:Neuroptera (Lacewings)
Order:Odonata (Dragonflies)
Order:Megaloptera
SuperOrder: Orthopteroidea
Order:Mecoptera
Order:Blattaria (Cockroaches)
(Scorpion flies)
Order:Mantodea (Mantids)
Order:Diptera (True flies)
Order:Isoptera (Termites)
Order:Siphonaptera (Fleas)
Order:Zoraptera
Order:Trichoptera
Order:Grylloblattaria (Mole crickets) (Caddis flies)
Order:Dermaptera (Earwigs)
Order:Lepidoptera
Order:Orthoptera (Locusts, etc)
(Moths &Y butterflies)
Order:Phasmida (Stick insects)
Order:Embioptera (Web spinners)
See specimen.
Order:Plecoptera (Stone flies)
Class: Diplurata
Order: Diplura
Hexapoda
The subphylum Hexapoda is by far the largest group of
invertebrates. Scientists have so far identified about
1,000,000 species of insect, but predictions suggest that
the final total may be nearer to 20,000,000.
Insects play many vital roles in the ecosystem. Perhaps
one of the most important is the collection and disposal
of dung. Several species of beetle make balls of dung,
which they roll off to their nests.
Not all insects can fly. Some, such as the true flies, have
two wings , some, such as the bees, have four wings
and some, like the silverfish and thrips, have no
wings at all.
Insects are also important as parasites. Many species lay
eggs, which hatch into burrowing larvae. These then eat
into the host animal. Some, such as these Bot-fly on
the stomach of a horse , burrow deep into the flesh.